Alejandro Martínez Dhier (Granada): Derecho y minorías: La relación de gitanos y moriscos en España durante la Monarquía Absoluta (with translation aids)

Abstract

In the long course of history, the population of the peninsula has been rich in diversity. Different social groups have become distinguishable from the XVth century on, when new groups such as the Canarian “Guanches”, natives from the New World and foreigners joined the original inhabitants of the Great Crowns, Castilla and Aragon, Jews and Moriscos. With the Gypsies, another social group entered the scene that would soon form the lowest strata of society. There have been different “legal statuses” attributed to Gypsies in our historic legislation, and there has been legal imprecision with regard to the term “Gypsy”. This would then impede the Monarchy from giving a single, serious, efficient, compelling and unambiguous response to the problem that Gypsies constituted in Spanish society during the ancient regime, a time characterized by an evident demographic crisis.

Alejandro Martínez Dhier is Professor of History of Law and Institutions at the University of Granada, where he also obtained his doctorate with a thesis on the juristic and social conditions of gypsies in the historic legislation of Spain after 1499 (La condición social y jurídica de los gitanos en la legislación histórica española a partir de la pragmática de los Reyes Católicos de 1499). He is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, European Convergence and New Degrees and Member of the Board of Directors of the Faculty of Law of the University of Granada. Among his monographs: Rafael de Ureña y Smenjaud y sus Observaciones acerca del desenvolvimiento de los estudios de Historia del Derecho Español (Granada, 2007) y El jurisconsulto granadino Manuel de Seijas (Hernández) Lozano, precursor de la Codificación en España (Córdoba, 2009).